Art of drying and polishing.



F. A. TOLHURST. n ART 0F DRYING AND POLISHING.

APPLIoATIoy FILED JUNE 29, 190s.

Patented Sept. 19, 1911.

z sunk-SHEET 1.

ox@ m /Ud, m nw Weth-faja MTNEEIEIEE F.. A. TOLHURST.

ART 0F DRYING AND POLISHING.

PPLIUATXON FILED JUNE 29, 1908. 1,003382?, Panted Sept. 19,1911.

2 SHEETSBEBET 2.

MTNEEJE UNITED STAIIES PATENT OFFICE.

FREDERICK A. TOLHURST,

OF NEW YORK, N. Y., .SSIGNORTO TOLHUBST MACHINE WORKS, OF TROY, NEWYORK, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

am: or .DRYING AND romsmmi.

Specicatlon of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 19, 1911.

Application led June 29, 1906. Serial No. 440,858.

To all whom it concern:

' Be it known that I, FREDERICK A. Torf.

` nonsr, a citizen of the United States, re-

siding at New` York, county of New York, and State of` New York, 'haveinvented certain new and useful Im rovements' in .the Art of Drying andPolis ing, of which the following is 'a specification. V

The invention relates to such improvements and consists of the novelconstruction and combination of parts hereinafter Cle-I scribed andsubsequently claimed.

Reference may be had to -the accompanying drawings, and the referencecharacters marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.Similar characters refer to similar parts in the several figurestherein. The invention relates to drying and brightening acid-dipped andelectro-plated metal articles. o

It iscustomary inithe manufacture' ot many kinds of metal articles, asone of the final steps in such manufacture, to dip them into an acidsolution to remove the traces of manufacturing, as for instance toremove fire marks, or to clean them from metal dust,

, oil, dirt accidentally collected, or other foreign or undesirablematter to ut them in nal commercial condition. ther metal articles areelectroplated. In the case of the articles which are acid-dipped, and inthe case of those which are electro-plated'also, it is necessary thatthe liquid in which they were immersed be removed quickly and uniformlyfrom all parts of thesurfa'ce to prevent oxidation, corrosion and stain.It is lfurther necessary to brighten these surfaces, that is., to impartto them'the uniform lustrous and` bright appearance common to thecompleted commercial 'articles of these classes.- Heretofore 'suchart-icles have been dried and brightened by being tumbled 'in barrels,or shaken in sieves, containing hard wood saw-dust. The particlesy'of'saw`dust by reason of their orosit absord the moisture ltrom thesur ace o the articles, and

.serve also by a sort of 4gentle 'attrition or batting' action tobrighten the articles, that is, to give them 'the lustrous 'ap earancewhich constitutest the commercie Ifinish.'

The work as performed with the saw-dust .and attendant apparatus'. istedious and laborious, and Where conducted on a large scale involvesconsiderable ap aratus in the way of tumbling barrelasanz# ust' bins,etc.,

`eration constitutes a ver and requires also much manual labor.Furthermore, the saw-dust 'is constantly dcteriorating, as itabsorbs themoisture from repeated operations and is therefore uncerarticles withgreat rapidity, is ca able of acting at one time on exceeding y.y -larquantities of such articles to simultaneous brighten and dry them, evenwhen suc articles with great rapidit is capable'of .or elaborate form,and will, accomplish the work at a very low cost.'

Accordin to thepresent invention a mass of the meta articles are takenwet from the cleaning or electrolytic bath and are subjected to theactionof a blast or current of hot, dry air moving at great velocity,and in accordance .with one feature 4of the invention, the mass ofarticles is at the same time moved in a transverse direction tothe'direction of movement of the current of air, and also preferably atVa high velocity. articles are thus dried andat the same timebrightened, or'rendered lustrous to a very high degree, giving themagpleasing, satisfactory and superior commercial finish.

Both the drying and brightening action is accomplished by the action ofrapidly moving air currents, 'and not by any attrition due to movementof the articles in the mass either against or relatively to each other,or against any other substance; In fact withA most such articles,.itisessential that they be at rest relatively to each other individu- Theally, as they would otherwise bescratched Iand' abraded so as to beuncommercial.

The movement of the air and 'of the'mass ,of articles 1nl 'transversedn'ectionstserves to rend/er the drying and brightenig action 4 o f the'a1r uniform in all parts of all the articles, notwithstandi'n" intricacyl.of shape in the .articles ndja so. notwithstanding thatthe `artlcles'w .individually be very small and the mass of articles operated upon atone time be relatively very'great. This appears' to be due to anintensevortex act-ion of the air set up between and around all parts of themassed articles, :whereby all the parts ont the articles are reached andacted upon by the violently moving' air currents.

in the accompanying drawings there is illustrated an apparatus which hasbeen found to be suitable ,and convenient for carrying sti'tuting myinventioinand the invention is described more in detail in connectionwith and by the aid of, said drawing. lleierringto the drawinsligure lis an elerationj ot an apparatus for supplying a. strong current Vci?hot and dry air to a in. ot such" metal articles while the metalarticles are also y'in motion at a high velocity;

and Q isa substantially central section y on vthe line 2 2 o Fig. l.

The apparatus for giving motion to the mass ot articles has a rotatorymovement and is arranged todispose the articles very sides, or .verticalWalls, of the container or basket Q are provided With a large number ofrelatively snizill apertnresll, which are designed to permit the air tothere throiagh while retaining the articles Within the basket it.

The. spindle 4e may be driven in any suitable manner, and ris shownprovided With al pulley G over which passes a belt 7, said belt runningover a guide wheel 8 to a driving pulley 9. it suitable brake may beprovided, and brake shoe l0 is shown acting the pulley tl, said brakeshoe beingr mounted on thc lever 13 pivotally supported on the traine atlll. Pivotally connected to 'the other end of the lever i3 is ascrewtlarearlcd rod lf2 threaded into a recessed lug or support on 4themachine frame. A hand wheel lf3 serves to rotate the rod 12 and to applyor release the brake.

upper portionorn the casing,T l is pronp. with an opening 17 to which asuithle lidI i8 is iitted. A pipcfor conduit 2O passes into an apertureif) in the lidvto supply the air for the drying and brighteningoperation. .i pump 2l is shown for driving the air through 'the pipe 20,and a pipe 23 conxmunicat'es from the air pump 2l to a suitableair-heating and drying chamber 22.

Vthrough the pipe 2l'.

ont or practicing the method conincase? Within said chamber is shown aseries of steam coils 25, supplied from av pipe 2(3,for heating anddrying the air as it is drawn in by the pump 23, the steam passing outThe apertures '2S serve to admit the air to the heating and dryingapparatus.

After the articles are placed within the basket or container 2,' and thebasket is started into motion, :1t first slowly and then more and morerapidly until a. high velocity is attained, the Wet metal articlesWithin the basket 2, by reason of centrifugal action, will distributethemselves up and around the vertical sides of the basket or container 2leaving the central part empty. At the same time the hot dry air isforced at great velocity. into the interior of the basket or container,and by reason of the 'pressure land the centrifugal action is driven atgreat velocity through all parts of the .mass of articles and about andagainst all surfaces of the varticles in the mass, .finally passing outthrough the apertures 3. This air then escapes through one or moreopenings 31, located in the outer periphery of the casing l. It Willthus be seen that the various articles in the mass are at rest withrespect to each other, and

that theyare moving at great' velocity in c .one directionuvhilesubjected to the action oi a current of hotl and dry air moving in a,transverse direction, or inreality in a great. number oi varioustransverse directions. This transverse movement causes the air to actequally upon all sides and upon all surfaces of the metal articles,Whether interior or exterior, and not only does it dry them quickly andeasily, but `ogives them the uniform lustrcmsness or brightness sodesirable vand necessary as a commercial finish, the finish imparted bythis method be#4 ing more uniform and brighter than by tumbling insaw-dust.

l' claiml. The process of simultaneously drying and brighteningA .metalarticles taken from an electrolytic bath which consists in forchot. dryair at high velocity through a mass ot' said articles While wet tosimulta neously dry and brighten them. A

2. The process of drying and brightening dipped or plated metalarticles, which consists inforcing a current of hot, dry, air through amass of said articles while the mass of articles is in transversedirection to the direction of the air current'.

3e The process of dryingr and brightenrinfr dipped or plated metalarticles, which consists in forcing a current of hot. dry, air

through a mass of said articles while theY mass ot' articles is in rapidmotion in a transverse direction to the direction oi the air current,4the articles constituting the rapid motion in a 'ling .dippe mass beingat 'rest with respecty toleach other. i r

ing a mass of said articles to rapid rotation, whereby the mass issubjected to restrained `-'centrifugal action and lthe articlesconstituting the mass are at rest Awith respect t0 each other, andintroducing dry air under pressure near the center of rotation of saidmass' and forcing it outwardly through said mass;

5. The process of drying and brightening dipped or plated metal articlestaken from an eleetrolytic bath, which consists in forcing a current ofdry air through a massof sai articles while the mass, of articles is inrapid motion inl a transverse direction to the i direction of the aircurrent, the articles constituting the mass being at rest with 'respectto each other,

6. The process of drying and brightening dipped or plated metal articlestaken from an ele'ctrolytic bath which consists in forcing a current ofdry air through a mass of said wet articles in a plurality of directions.j and at a high velocity, whereby said air currents will'tact directlyupon all surfaces of the articles and upon all the articles of the masswhereby the articles are both dried and brightened simultaneously. f

7. The prcessof drying and brightening dipped o1" plated metal articlestaken from an electrolytic bath which consists in rapidly moving a massof said articles and forcing a current of dry air through said mass ofarticles in a direction different from the direction of motion of saidmass.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this th day of June,1908..

FREDERICK A. TOLHURST. Witnesses:

HOWARD CAMPBFLL, PETER FLINT.

